📚How to Crypto Investor | Near Protocol
Near Protocol is a relatively new network, much smaller than blockchain giants like Terra and BSC. According to DeFi Lama, it's a Top-12 blockchain with a $1.7 B TVL, but if you look at the growth dynamics of Near, you will see promises and a helpful ecosystem.
Also Near has own algoritmic stablecoin - USN. Near may become a trustful alternative to Terra and UST after its dramatic collapse and unpeg.
What is Near Protocol
Near Protocol was born in San Francisco as a startup of Alexander Skidanov and Ilia Stripukhina. The mainnet was launched in July 2020. For now, the project is a full-fledged company with dozens of staff aboard.
Like other post-Ethereum blockchains, Near tries to solve the problem of network speed and scalability. To solve it, developers used the Nightshade sharding technology. It means that the blockchain s divided into several chains for faster transaction processing.
The Near Protocol is not EVM-compliant, such as BSC, so it's difficult to interact with ERC-20 tokens and Ethereum smart contracts. Realizing this, the developers built Aurora EVM based on the Near blockchain. It's an Near-independent site and company, but it has become the base for most of Near DeFi.
Using Aroura EVM, many DeFi projects migrate from Ethereum or BSC to Near, as it is a cheaper and faster blockchain. So there are many DeFI-services, including NFT, DEX, Loans, and others.
Wallets for Near's tokens
NEAR Wallet - native wallet from Near's developers. Non-custodial and available as a browser extension. In fact, it is the only fully functional wallet for Near blockchain.
But also you can use popular multichain wallets, as TrustWallet or MathWallet.
DeFi and DEXs
Rose.Fi - stablecoins DEX on Aurora platform. It offers swaps for several stablecoins, including Frax, DAI, and BUSD. Also, you can use here stablecoin's liquidity pools and farming.
Trisolaris - the Aurora-based DeFi platform, but with a much wider number of liquid pairs. The site supports cross-chain swaps, farming, liquidity pools, and native token staking.
Ref.finance - one of the most popular DeFi platforms on the Near. Supports cross-chain transactions, swaps, and liquidity pools (including special LP for stablecoins).
NFT-marketplaces
Paras - is a typical NFT marketplace. However, the quality of the lots here is lower than in the top collections on OpenSea or BinanceNFT, but the floor prices are too.
Mintbase - the NFT platform where you can trade and create your own NFT with cheap mint. The marketplace lots include photos, arts, and photos of arts.
TENKBay - positioned as an NFT incubator to create and promote generative art. Try it if you want to make not just a jpeg but a unique NFT.
If you need more services to work - just explore the infographic with the Near ecosystem. It is still small, but you can find all you need to start DeFi:
One more. If you need to buy native Near tokens NEAR just for hold - is the easiest way to make it via the BNB network. It is compatible with almost all non-custodial wallets.
For cross-chain transactions, use Aurora-based DeFi sites or native RainbowBridge - the safest cross-chain bridge of the Near ecosystem.
Also, don't forget to pick a few useful links:
What makes Near protocol special?
TVL and the number of services on the blockchain are not impressive for now. However, Near is actively growing. If it does not slow down, it will soon become into the TOP 10 blockchains. And the mainnet works only a little more than a year. Near Protocol attracts developers and users with unique benefits:
Useful cross-chain solution for DeFi: RainbowBridge and Aurora EVM
Another few hundred million to incentive developers, and the network will be able to compete with Tier-1 blockchains like Solana. But even now, you can just use low fees for swap and watch on the Near Protocol rising.